News from CommerceNewsTODAY - Topics from November, 2010

The Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority, owner of the Bear Creek Reservoir in southwest Jackson County, spent a good bit of time last week wrestling with how to finance its boat ramp operation. Not surprisingly, the fee-for-fishing program is operating at a deficit. As a result, the authority voted to increase the cost citizens pay to access ...
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Effective Jan. 1, the cost of fishing from a boat in the Bear Creek Reservoir in Southwest Jackson County is going up 20 to 40 percent for most people who use the lake. The Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority, which owns and manages the regional drinking water reservoir, voted last Wednesday to increase the cost of a $5 daily pass one dollar to ...
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County officials are working quietly to position Jackson County to take advantage of a change in state transportation funding. Beginning in 2012, multi-county districts in Georgia can begin holding referendums to impose 10-year one-cent sales tax levies to fund roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure. Districts that approve the ...
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By Susan Harper I’ve never been the most enthusiastic shopper, so it unnerved me to learn that there are people who calm and console themselves by shopping, even to the point of becoming addicted. I’ve had my addictions, but shopping was never one of them. Christmas shopping, though, is something else. Christmas shopping can be magical, and ...
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The Commerce School System hopes to officially take possession of the new high school in the immediate future. “They’re doing the punch list,” explained superintendent James E. “Mac” McCoy last Thursday. “They were here yesterday and they’ll be back today.” The punch list is a final list of fixes, corrections or missing details ...
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The Nicholson City Council unanimously approved its 2011 proposed general fund budget totaling $410,000 following a public hearing Thursday night. The 2011 budget is up slightly from the $405,000 general fund budget for 2010. Several residents spoke in favor of the 2011 budget that includes $20,000 for the library for books and periodicals. ...
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A 23-year-old Commerce man faces public drunkenness and theft by taking charges after he and another yet-to-be apprehended subject led Commerce police on a chase on a stolen mini-four-wheel vehicle. The officer who initiated the response reported seeing two white males on the vehicle traveling west on Homer Road. He turned to make a traffic ...
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Sometimes, we forget just how blessed we are. Thanksgiving is the day set aside to correct that oversight, and it couldn’t come at a better time. In a time of economic and political uncertainty, the fact remains that Americans are the most blessed people on the planet. We’re the safest and most affluent nation in the world, we have the ...
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The Commerce Board of Education approved its Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Nov. 8, dipping into its reserve funds to the tune of $556,000. Projected revenue is set at $11,031,894 and expenses at $11,588,152. Director of finance Ann Stokey said that utilizing that much of reserves is unlikely and will be avoided if possible. “We hope we can do as ...
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